“Poorly managed”
Clinics see the Lauterbach reform as coming to an end
April 12, 2024, 2:03 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
While Health Minister Lauterbach celebrates his hospital reform as a great success and certifies that the future clinic atlas will have “huge transparency”, the clinic operators’ verdict is devastating. DGK boss Gaß doesn’t give a damn about the project.
The head of the German Hospital Association (DKG), Gerald Gaß, sees Karl Lauterbach’s controversial hospital reform as imminent: “The major structural reform was so poorly managed by the ministry that it is on the verge of failure,” Gaß told the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post Office”. “We still don’t have a coordinated draft bill.” The minister actually wants the federal cabinet to approve the reform on April 24th.
“We have reserve financing that is demonstrably ineffective, hospital planning according to service groups that effectively disempowers the states, and a transformation fund that is essentially financed by contributors to statutory health insurance companies,” criticized Gaß. “The hospitals’ current economic problems remain unresolved, so the cold structural change continues.”
The clinic atlas, which was supposed to launch on May 1st and inform patients about the quality of the hospitals, has also been delayed. “The practical implementation of the transparency directory is completely unclear. It is currently unclear when the directory will be published and what data it will contain,” the DKG boss continued. The Transparency Act would impose new reporting obligations on clinics: “These particularly affect many small-scale reports relating to staff that do not offer any added value. Hospitals also currently lack the digital reporting procedure provided for in the law for many data reports (for medical staff and midwives).”
“We have far too many hospital beds”
Lauterbach wants to fundamentally change the hospital system with his reform. The central element is a new remuneration system that is intended to free hospitals from the economic pressure to treat more and more patients. The facilities should also specialize more in medicine. The basis for this is a law on hospital financing, which is to be passed by the federal cabinet at the end of April.
According to the minister, the reform can avert a “dramatic hospital death” by 2026. There should then be an “orderly restructuring and dismantling” of the German hospital landscape. Facilities should specialize in certain services or, for example, enter into collaborations with other institutions. Lauterbach emphasized: “It is undisputed that we have far too many hospitals.” He hoped that the new clinical atlas would provide “huge transparency” starting in the fall.